


Objectivity

by cat_77



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Hopefully AU, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-17
Updated: 2014-04-17
Packaged: 2018-01-19 16:54:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1477081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cat_77/pseuds/cat_77
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>People lie.  Science tells the truth.</p><p> </p><p>Spoilers for Agents of SHIELD episode 1.18 (Providence).  Very slight spoilers for Captain America: The Winter Soldier.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Objectivity

Imbeciles. She worked with imbeciles. How many were-? No, she stopped herself before she went down that road, not needing the extra frustration right about now.

Now she needed to concentrate. She needed to do her job, play her role, encourage the others to do theirs before any and all were discovered, before any and all were revealed to be traitors and locked away. She might as well get some decent work out of them before that time came, really – it was only practical.

She examined the most recent data stream, and frowned. Useless. She gave Garrett an actual number, an actual exact item to obtain, and he grabbed anything and everything but. He claimed there was only the one, and it was used to save Skye. She claimed there were always redundancies in any study, it was simply good science. She was tempted to send the request that a handful of his minions go digging within the collapsed mountain to look for more. It was a research facility built by a super-secret spy agency. Spies, like scientists, liked redundancies. It was possible something survived that may still be of use.

She examined the encrypted data within the stream, and pursed her lips. Garrett’s implants were doing well, but it wouldn’t hurt to send a boost. She was reluctant solely because early studies showed the neurolink deteriorated with each delivery. Given that she needed him both compliant and susceptible to her whims, this may not be an entirely bad thing.

She decided to wait until the next stream. Ward had arrived at the Agency No Longer Known as SHIELD’s so-secret-it-didn’t-have-a-name base, and had been kind enough to report Garrett’s impulsiveness and slight instability along the way. The senior agent was taking credit for being the Clairvoyant, he claimed, despite explicit knowledge otherwise. Given that this declaration served to protect her own position, outright stop anyone from digging deeper to see whom he was taking his orders from or how he was getting them, she saw no reason to object. However, Ward also reported hesitance to follow his SO’s orders because of this perceived instability. 

This led her back to the internal rant about imbeciles. 

Really, the only one with a decent head on them was Raina, and that was due to her own scientific background. She wanted to learn, wanted to know, wanted to expand her horizons and understood what was involved in doing so, what testing was required, what subjects were needed, the documentation necessary to fully examine the ramifications. She had filed her own report and listed both Garrett’s zealousness in leading the lower level agents, and a review of Ward’s loyalty. Grant said the right things, made the right moves, but still pinged as an anomaly on her radar. Less than a scientific finding, but the woman had damned good instincts based upon her years of research. If she claimed something was possibly off, it was worth reviewing. So many studies, so many cures, were obtained in the past because someone with the experience required noted something others would deem unimportant and it ended up being the key to it all. A review would also show if Raina herself had been tainted in her captivity, made to doubt the obvious, made to question fact over supposition.

It would be easy enough to test Ward’s true loyalties, just as it would be easy enough to dose him again if needed. She was actually quite proud of the process to do so: tiny chimera, part biological, part chemical, part technological, inserted via minimal interaction with the subject. Easiest and most reliable when there was an open wound or other route directly to the bloodstream, but more casual contact achieved sufficient results and at least made the subject malleable enough to accept a more direct dosing. A single cotton swab mixed in amongst those which were actually used for obtaining samples or delivering necessary analgesics was usually sufficient, though occasionally she preferred the syringe should she desire a larger dose or had reason to believe the existing chimera where inert or damaged in some way.

The door to her sanctuary opened and she hit the keying sequence to hide everything and weave it back in with all the various other data that surrounded her, thankful for the absent-mindedness and absolute trust of the man who wandered in, eyes on his own data grouping, barely remembering to glance up and offer a distracted, “Oh, hello, Jemma. I thought I was the only one not sleeping at this hour.”

Fitz immediately wandered over to his own bank of computers, likely already lost in whatever had caught his interest this time. Really, she suspected she could have had a screen filled with Hydra logos and he wouldn’t notice, though she was not stupid enough to take that risk. Instead, she smiled despite his eyes directed elsewhere, and said, “Oh, you know, the beds in a frozen spy hovel just don’t equate to those of our illustrious spy plane.”

“Yeah, missing my cubicle sweet cubicle as well,” a new voice chimed in from the doorway. Triplett. Her shadow. Her newfound bodyguard. He definitely had his uses, though he sparked a nervousness she was tempted to call jealousy from Fitz given how much they had begun to “work” together. 

She and Fitz had worked their way up through the Science ranks, his utter and complete innocence and earnestness clearing them both of questionable actions more than once. She had quickly learned to stick with the dear and nurture that bond. She would truly and utterly be distraught should he ever be implicated in anything, and she would be outright furious should he be harmed. Garrett had almost crossed the line with that one, which is why she opted to give him the intel for the base with the irregular climate controls versus the far better equipped one in Bahrain. He could work his way up to that right, and she expected it would take quite some time.

Triplett though, he had proved quite protective, not to mention useful. A little clingy at times, but he most definitely got the job done. His dosing was the most recent, most refined, though he may or may not actually need such a thing, she honestly wasn’t certain. He believed he was doing what was right and doing it for the right reasons. He had barely needed a push to decide he needed to assist and watch over a low level scientist that surely had no access to anything of import and was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had passed Hand’s loyalty scan with easily enough, and had submitted to a far more invasive version of the same though he currently had no recollection of the event.

So she would put up with both of them. Let Fitz futz around her and build new and better tech and let Triplett poke at things and investigate and be the muscle to protect them both now that Ward’s presence was not a guarantee.

She smiled sweetly and accepted the subpar tea offered and pretended she didn’t mind the intrusion. When her phone inevitably rang because her superior was predictable to say the least and there really was a reason she had been alone and away from the residential area where she might be overheard, she picked it up and admonished, “Dad, really? Do you even know what hour it is here? Well, no, probably not since you don’t know where here is... How’s Mum?”

She received her data and sent her own all the while studying yet another sample of Skye’s blood and silently cursing the lack of any tangible finding. When she hung up, orders freshly delivered, she pretended to prep a slide and commented, “If you two are awake, surely Agent Ward is by now. Can someone please fetch him for me? I doubt he's had that gash of his properly treated and we should do so whilst we still have the supplies.”

Triplett eyed Fitz and she could see the threat assessment made and discarded before he tipped his non-existent hat and said, “Will do – think I saw him with our most junior agent fighting over who had the prettier lanyard. Want me to pick up some breakfast while I’m, out? Canada has those Tim Horton things everywhere, right, even in the middle of nowhere?”

Fitz snorted a chuckle and added, “Yeah, why don’t you see if they’ll deliver to a top secret base; I don’t feel like going out today.”

The banter washed over her and she started another study while contemplating the sheer list of the tasks she needed to complete. The whole keeping up a façade thing was tiring, especially when there was data she could be working with directly instead of remotely. But, like any good scientist and any good agent, she simply needed to accept what was provided and work with what she was given. There was far too much at stake to do otherwise.


End file.
